Natham Colony in Dharmapuri district is upset at the crisis engulfing the marriage between a local Dalit youth and a caste-Hindu girl.

On Thursday, the girl, N. Divya, whose marriage with the youth Illavarasan triggered large-scale violence in the district in November last, told the Madras High Court that she would like to stay with her mother for the time being. Commenting on the development, D. Selvi, a resident of the colony, says: “We lost everything in the violence for no fault of ours. It is now unfortunate that the girl has gone with her mother.”

Over 260 houses in Natham and two other colonies – Anna Nagar and Kondampatti – were ransacked and torched by a mob after Diyva’s father committed suicide on November 7 following the marriage. New houses are being built for the affected families. But the construction of Ilavarasan’s new house is stopped because of the latest crisis.

Recounting the trauma they underwent through on November 7, the residents said that all that was left after the attack were only the clothes they wore. The houses and belongings were all gone. The residents alleged that three days prior to the girl leaving her husband’s house in Dharmapuri town (where they had relocated to avoid trouble), Naikkankottai-Sellankottai Road was busy with vehicles sporting the flag of a particular political party heading for Divya’s village Sellankottai. The couple had become a “victim of political conspiracy,” the Dalits alleged.

Natham Colony residents said they learnt that Divya’s mother N. Thenmozhi had visited the young couple at their house in the town several times with sweets and dresses. The couple were happy. But, the girl’s decision to go with the mother was unfortunate. “We do not know what made the girl take such a decision,” said a resident.

On Friday, only Divya’s paternal aunt Kalaiselvi could be found in the girl’s house at Sellankottai. Diyva’s younger brother N. Manisekar could score only 680 out of 1,200 in the Plus-Two exam because he was disturbed by his father’s suicide and the riots that followed. Now, the latest developments were delaying his college admission.

Mr. Ilavarasan, whose house was also damaged in the November 4 mob fury, told The Hindu over phone that the ‘thali’ Divya wore was forcibly removed immediately after she reached her house at Sellankottai. Mr Ilavarasan claimed he did not return to Dharmapuri after appearing in the court in Chennai on Thursday. But, he did not reveal where he was staying now.

The parting of ways of the Dharmapuri couple, Divya and Ilavarasan, is causing as much consternation as their marriage did. It has also raised a wide range of questions, from marriage as an institution to the right of the younger generation to choose their life partners.

“From the very first day when her marriage with a Dalit boy came into the limelight, I wondered how this girl would survive the onslaught. My worst fears have come true now because marriage as an institution failed to give any protection to even an ordinary woman,” said writer V. Geetha. She said there was no social protection to those who married outside their caste.

PUCL national general secretary V. Suresh reiterated that it was here that the government had to step in to protect inter-caste marriages, which were instrumental in establishing a casteless society and eradication of untouchability.

“You need an enormous amount of courage to withstand the emotional blackmail from the family and society. The girl lived with her husband for about 10 months and suddenly changed her mind. There is something behind the whole incident,” Mr Suresh said.

Sahitya Akademi winner Su. Venkatesan said, “Love as a concept has been under attack and in the case of Divya and Ilaavarasan, the couple were targeted from all sides.”

Lyricist Vairamuthu said such attacks continued to happen since marriage, as an institution, was inextricably linked to caste, religion and family relationship. “Love marriages will survive only when couples are self-reliant.”

Balu of Advocates Forum for Social Justice and a functionary of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) denied any political conspiracy behind the issue and suggested that to avoid such problems, the role of parents must be highlighted.

“We are not against love marriages as such. We only insist that the parents have a say in the marriage of their children. This will avoid marriages due to infatuation driven by hormonal imbalance at a certain age.”

He suggested that the minimum age for marriage for women be raised to 21 years.

And reaction in the social media
Now, a provocative blog post against Dalits
Karthik Subramanian

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...inst-dalits/article4792149.ece?ref=sliderNews
The day after the dramatic developments at the Madras High Court, where a caste Hindu girl decided to go with her mother, foregoing her marriage with the Dalit youth – the backdrop to the large-scale casteist violence in Dharmapurai and Marakkanam last year – a youth wing leader of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has put out a provocative blog post titled ‘In the name of Dalit Revolution’ (translated from Tamil). In it, he has raised questions once again over the motives of “love marriages” between Dalits and caste Hindus.

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“We are not against love marriages as such. We only insist that the parents have a say in the marriage of their children. This will avoid marriages due to infatuation driven by hormonal imbalance at a certain age.”

He suggested that the minimum age for marriage for women be raised to 21 years.

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aha you have managed to find more of those spoof stories verging on the ridiculous, I do think we should stick to news and not parody , it does make you smile though, like that could happen in real life!

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Not all people, no matter how great their love have the necessary strength and maturity to buck an entire social system. This is not a matter of blame; it is a simple fact.

I will be blunt. The whole Indian nation has a warped view of sex and sexuality. They are scared silly of it, so scared that young adults are not allowed to choose their partners, their domicile, even their careers. Here again, India needs to move into the Twentieth Century, and, we hope, eventually into the Twenty-First.

It seems to me that Indians actually moving backward, away from freedom into a period of stupefying suffocation. Some women are ready for marriage at 18, some at 21. A few are ready at a younger age and some, only when older. This is also true of young men. I suppose an older age is better than going the other direction with the child brides that are still forced to marry so young.

It's time, I think, that no Indian young person be pressured or forced to marry on the basis of caste or family or any reason other than they want to. But I am not an Indian and, I guess, can rightly be told I have no right to throw their whole social system into chaos. But since it is already chaotic, I'm not doing any harm.

CHENNAI: A dalit boy, whose marriage to a Vanniyar girl triggered anti-dalit violence in three villages of Tamil Nadu's Dharmapuri district in November last year, was found dead along a railway track in that town on Thursday, a day after his wife said she would never go back to him and would stay with her mother.

Railway police said Ilavarasan was found along a track behind the government arts college in Dharmapuri.

News of the boy's death led to a tense situation in dalit areas in Naickenkottai, with many of them thronging the Government Medical College hospital, where his body was taken.

Dharmapuri superintendent of police Asra Garg said raliway police are conducting an inquiry and that it was too early to say if there any foul play. Police pickets have been posted in sensitive areas in Naickenkottai.

The girl Divya told reporters on Wednesday after appearing for a hearing in Madras high court that she has been under tremendous pressure all along and was unable to forget her father who committed suicide after her marriage. She also said she no longer wanted to live with her husband, but her mother.

The bench comprising Justice M Jayachandran and Justice M Sunderesh had reserved the orders for Friday.

Her mother had filed a habeas corpus petition to produce her before the Court and set her at liberty.

On July 1, Divya had told the court she would go with her mother "for the time being". She also said she had no problems in the house of her husband or with her mother-in-law, but was haunted by incidents of her father's death, who committed suicide after her marriage with Ilavarasan of Natham village.

Divya's mother too had opposed the marriage on October 14. Three villages of Dharmapuri district — Natham, Kondamapatty and Annanagar — witnessed violence and about 296 huts belonging to dalits were torched on November 7 after the girl's father committed suicide.

Several writ petitions were filed and the court ordered a probe into rehabilitation measures taken in dalit colonies under the committee headed by IAS officer Vaski, which submitted a 5000-page report to the high court.

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It started as a hobby. She didn't expect for it to turn into a viral thing, but as a society that is sick and tired of seeing the ridiculous beauty standards of the media and our kids' toys, people latched on to what she did with fervor. Personally, I think this is amazing....

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